An Envious God (The Essence Wars #1)

The Essence Wars – An Envious God
Book One of The Essence Wars

Six years have passed since the fires of The Seeker’s Wrath, and the Eastern Union stands on the brink. Treaties unravel, alliances falter, and whispers speak of a power buried deep beneath the roots of the world. The gifted are vanishing. The old laws no longer hold.

Maerwyn Sawngfli is sent south in disgrace, ordered to report to Garette Fort after surviving an attack she cannot explain. Before she reaches it, the West lays siege to the stronghold and tears through the garrison. What remains when Maerwyn arrives is not a battlefield but a grave. No final stand. No bodies. Only ruins warped by something that did not belong in this world.

A single key leads her into the tunnels beneath the fort. She expects a way inside. Instead she finds two Western survivors and their bonded lumineers, starving, terrified, and certain that the West was not the true threat.

Forced together, Maerwyn, her warhound Braegor, and the strangers follow the trail of the force that consumed both armies. Their search uncovers a political struggle already splintering the East. Stores of precious stock are seized without warning. Armories are stripped. The Citadel of Aliztar closes its gates and hides its intentions behind its banners.

Rumors grow louder than orders. Something is moving beyond the desert that no one crosses, a presence old enough to reshape nations and patient enough to let them destroy themselves first.

As hunter, soldier, and exile converge, each carries a truth the Eastern Union cannot survive. The Essence grants power. It always demands something in return.

This is not the beginning of a war.
It is the unraveling of the world.

For fans of immersive, character-driven epic fantasy with deep political intrigue, spiritual tension, and brutal realism, The Essence Wars begins a saga of broken faith, unraveling alliances, and the monstrous cost of power.